A Hero's Awakening
by Geosin
Summary: A young man, a chance encounter and an altered history. These elements coalesse into one moment that shifts the history of Remenant into something drastically different than the one we know. A new player emerges within the elaborate chess game between Ozpin and Salem, one who's only goal is to become the Hero he always dreamed of being. This is a Gamer fic, but with a small twist.
1. Chapter 1:A chance encounter

**Hello my dear readers and welcome to my newest fanfic in something completely different. This, like most of my other stuff will be my own spin on a popular fanfiction trope I see, doing my own thing with it to make it interesting and trying to improve in places that I see them fall. Will this be sucessful? Will I do well? Only time will tell, in the meantime I welcome any and all reviews, feedback whatever you have for me so I can improve for you all. Anyways, let's dive right into the story!**

A lone blonde figure walked down the dusty forest path, his sword in its sheath next to him, occasionally bouncing on his hip while he went forward. His blue eyes constantly looking around for any sign of the Grimm that may jump out and try to slaughter him at any moment, he may not have any real formal training but he could swing a blade! Well...Hopefully, he could, honestly, Jaune had never tried against a real moving target before, only the dummies in the family training yard but still he had some practice on how to properly swing a blade, his Dad would never let him leave the house without at least knowing about that after all.

Letting out a sigh, Jaune thought about how his parents had told him it was fine if he wanted to come home at any time. It was fine if he failed at his dream and just gave up, he was never one suited for combat anyways. Unlike his older sisters who all got triumphant speeches from Dad about honoring the Arc name and how he expected to hear stories from the teachers at Haven about their exploits.

That was another thing that appeared to bother his Dad, the fact that he was going to Beacon and not Haven like the rest of his family. The man stating how difficult it would be to go and see him when he was out there in Vale and... Well Jaune would be lying if that wasn't a part of why he chose Beacon to get his transcripts forged for, he loved his family with all his heart but none of them supported his dream. None of them went out of their way to suppress him outwardly no, but Jaune wasn't an idiot. He could tell from everyone's tone that they all doubted he had the stuff to become a Hero well he would show them! He would prove to his whole family that he could be a Huntsmen just like everyone else. Taking a deep breath to center himself before slowly exhaling it, the young man tried to refocus himself. He was almost to Vale now after all just passing through the small island of Patch and onto the Ferry that would take him to his destiny.

Suddenly the entire forest seemed to go deathly quiet for a few moments before the sound of a high caliber rifle fired off somewhere. Curious, Jaune tried to listen in and heard another, followed by a quick series of shots, getting a bad feeling about whatever was going on. The young man took off in the direction of the sounds. Running through the thick underbrush of the forest before he saw a clearing up ahead. One that was filled to the brim with a pack of Beowulf all charging after one speck of red in the crowd. The appearance of the monsters enough to make him shiver, black smoke rose from each creature's body, exuding an aura of pure malice charging ahead to attack their target.

One brilliant looking girl who was zipping around the battlefield, reaping her attackers with an oversized scythe, its blade cutting through the crowd like wheat. The bodies of all the Grim dissipating into pure mist as they were slain, soon enough Jaune saw the source of those gunshots earlier as the girl slammed her scythe into the ground to act as a stand before firing off a round at a line of the monsters, eliminating what looked like the last of the threats before the girl let out a small chuckle and lifted the thing up for it to fold in on itself. Jaune just looked on in awe as he finally got a good look at the person who was just speeding around like a bullet, she looked younger than him! If...If that was the kind of person that Beacon was looking for than what chance did he have? Maybe his parents were right, looking back to the girl, the young man gasped seeing a wolf, much larger than the rest of the pack suddenly appear behind the girl. This one's claws looked to be wrapped in shadow, whatever was covering them thick and fluid as some liquid dripped off of the thing's claws and onto the green grass, killing the plants and making them shrivel up almost instantly.

Before he could even acknowledge the danger her would be in, Jaune's legs were moving running as fast as he could to make it to the girl before whatever that thing was could attack her. Maybe he couldn't be the hero he wanted to be but this girl...This girl whoever she was sure had the potential to reach heights of skill and prowess that he could never even dream of seeing! The girl's silver eyes widening looking at the boy madly dashing at her, shouting something that he couldn't quite hear in the rush of things. Jaune's own irises widened in horror watching the Wolf Slowly raise its claws, moving completely silently as to not alert its prey. Cold, crimson eyes staring into his as it savored the taste of Jaune's despair. Pushing his legs on even faster, even if they screamed at him to stop Jaune was a few feet away from the mysterious girl when the claw swipe started to come down and in one last move of desperation, he leaped forward.

Tackling the girl down to the ground, Jaune let out a bloodcurdling scream of pain as the Beowulf's claws ripped into his skin, tearing past muscle and bone like they were paper ripping his back apart with the wicked marks before the young man fell to the ground. Whatever poison was on the thing's claws making his whole body run cold, despite the hot blood now leaking from his wounds. While he lay on the ground, he heard the girl's scream before the sound of a blade slicing through skin and the young man smiled, he had at least saved one person there, right?

As Jaune lay there on the ground, bleeding out his life started to flash before his eyes, though it all had a more melancholy and sad tint. Every happy memory highlighted with the sorrowful parts, every hug from his sisters holding a bit of pity for their weak sibling. The boy coughed a bit of blood out onto the grass he lay on as all his memories were corrupted, the poison feeling like it was destroying his soul as well as his body. Draining him of every ounce of happiness or joy, love or really anything, probably something to attract more grim to the girl. Determined for that not to happen Jaune closed his eyes to concentrate on one happy memory, one thing that he wouldn't let be corrupted.

The image of his grandfather appeared in his mind, the one man who encouraged Jaune to be a Huntsman. The man who did his best in his old age to train Jaune in the art of the sword and shield, the man who guaranteed that even if his grandson couldn't go to a combat school he sure as hell wouldn't be without a weapon bypassing the family blade down to him. The boy smiled at that memory, of the support the old man gave him. Sure he hadn't done much with the blade but still, his fading vision looked to the girl who now was over his body, panicking at the sight but still alive and well. That was good.

This woman, whoever she was clearly would be able to save more lives, beat more grimm and provide more hope to the world than he ever could. So by saving her life he kinda saved the lives of all those people as well right? His sacrifice, before he even had a day at Beacon to make himself a Hero would help everyone else live on, besides this sounded like as good a death as any for someone like him.

As his senses started to fail him, Jaune vaguely heard the girl chanting something. Probably a funeral rite or something similar, that was nice maybe he would at least be remembered by her. Not a very well known legend but hey, it was better than pittering out like nothing, and so Jaune closed his eyes, accepting his fate.

"Oh no, now that just won't do! You're supposed to play a much bigger role than that!" A calm, older voice rang throughout Jaune's mind, the timbre of it shifting from every positive male figure in his life, from his father to his grandpa, to his favorite teachers and even...One he could almost recognize but couldn't quite get. Still, it wasn't like Jaune had the energy to reply.

"Hm, if he played his hand like that here then I think I am allowed to help you along a bit. It's the perfect time to anyways, your aura is at its most malleable form when just awakened." Suddenly Jaune felt a rush of warmth start to surge through his veins! It felt like pure sunlight, warmth and life were surging through him. The poison that was corrupting his soul being expelled entirely, the young man could even feel his back sewing back together slowly his body replacing the lost blood at a rate that shouldn't be possible but still, it was happening!

After what felt like half an hour of his body surging and filling with energy again Jaune was able to just barely open his eyes to see some numbers floating in the air with a portrait of him smiling next to them. The top number, accompanied by s green bar that was empty read 3/30. Still exhausted and wiped, the young man couldn't keep his eyes open for a moment longer before he collapsed onto the ground, this time definitely still alive, with the silver-eyed girl looking him with both reliefs in shock in her eyes.

After a brief, yet nice dream of himself going off to save the world. Jaune saw a new textbox appear, contrasted against the darkness of his closed eyes.

_**After a Rest, Jaune's HP and MP Were Recovered.**_ This came along with a brief, but upbeat flute melody that brought a smile to his face His eyes opened slowly, his vision being slightly blurry as always. The soft hum of a ceiling fan turning around was the first thing that he took notice of before his irises focused again on the wooden ceiling above him with the aforementioned fan. Groaning, the young man looked around to see where the hell he was. He was in a bed it felt like, a pretty plush one at that. Pushing against the mattress he heard the soft creak of a wooden frame under stress taking in a deep breath and releasing it, his eyes wandered around the room he was in. There was a window to his left letting in the late summer sunlight, warming the room to a comfortable temperature and proving the perfect amount of light for him to see everything else.

On the opposite end of the room as a medium-sized bookshelf, stacked to the top with various books with thick bindings on them, focusing a bit on the spines he saw that they were a mix of fairy tale collections and weapons manuals, each of the latter delving deep into a specific kind of weapon, what it can do and how to make them. So he was clearly in someone's bedroom and said person was a weapons nut at that. Ooh boy, that didn't bode well for his current situation, throwing his legs over the edge of the bed and touching down easily Jaune managed to see the wall opposite to the window, a small desk was pressed up against it. The wall itself covered in posters of famous huntsmen and a few Superheros that he recognized. OK, so this person clearly wasn't a bad guy from the kind of people they admired.

Stepping out of the bed and stretching his tired muscles a bit, Jaune looked to the bed itself and was surprised by how small it was compared to him, the mattress was only barely long enough for his legs, that meant whoever used this room was a lot shorter than he was. Popping his neck a bit, Jaune turned to the last wall he hadn't seen yet and a sizeable closet came into view. The doors were open with a few bits of clothing haphazardly thrown into a hamper, with quite a few bits of clothing hanging out of the container. Looking back to the closet, he noted what clean clothes were there. A lot of black and red corsets along with matching battle skirts. That outfit, it was calling something he knew it! Groaning he closed his eyes and tried to focus, there was something about this that was missing, he had been on the trip to Vale via a patch and he had heard a gunshot so he went to investigate.

Suddenly the memories of yesterday started to flood into his mind, the mysterious huntress, the large fuck off Beowulf, he shivered a bit recalling the pain from taking that blow for the girl and then he..Died right? Or at least he came extremely close to dying but somehow managed to survive luckily... Taking in a sharp gasp suddenly he remembered the girl! Where was she, was she alright?! She had to be right? Looking around the room again, taking each detail in as he thought about what he knew a picture began to form in his mind. Closing his eyes again to form the mental image and work things out as he went along.

The girl was clearly fine at the end of his memory, with his half-dead body at her feet. The girl looked quite a bit younger than him and there were no hospitals around so she likely took him to her home, said girl had also quite clearly been trained well for all her life so he wouldn't be surprised if she came from a family of Huntsmen, who could probably take care of his body better than any of the local hospitals could considering they were out in the forest when he found the girl.

The huntsmen home also accounted for the books he supposed, the girl probably read the stuff and got inspired by them, the forging manuals remnants of when she was forging that Wicked Scythe of hers, that or she just really liked the weapons when she was in combat school. Either way that made sense, if this was that girl's room then she must have given it to him for the night to rest in. Groaning from the slight mental strain this early in the morning, Jaune opened his eyes again, this time darting around his peripheral vision, trying to take in anything he didn't notice before prior to smacking his head as he saw the floating text in the upper left side of his vision, as well as _**Menu**_ and _**Map**_ buttons right above his fingers, within his reach if he just moved them an inch or two.

Sitting back onto the bed, Jaune reached up and pressed the Menu button and really to no surprise more text came up in his vision. That...Strange voice he heard while laying on the ground, dying of either position said something about providing a bit of help. Was this what it meant? Giving him a weird-ass power that made boxes of text appear out of nowhere? It was strange but Jaune had a feeling that there was more to it than that, Dad always said a huntsmen's gut is usually his best friend in tricky situations so he decided to trust it for now as he looked at the new textbox.

"Alright then, let's see what we can do here." Looking at it, this was clearly a menu in front of him displaying quite a bit of information as best as it could, in front of him there as a text box with six options in front of him and to the right he spotted the portrait of himself he saw yesterday after he had been cured of that poison, this time he could clearly read the bars there. The green bar labeled HP was filled to the brim with a 30 displayed, and the blue one underneath labeled MP had 10 displayed. So was that a measurement of his health and aura? This was starting to get kind of weird but, taking a deep breath again Jaune was determined to do anything but panic, if he did that then this whole situation would only get worse as time went on.

Going back to the menu, Jaune quickly pressed on the equipment option and up came a depiction of himself, sword and shield out with labels on all of his clothes stating what they were and looking through them, he even saw their small numbers and let out a hum.

"Ok so...This weird power or whatever it is lets me see stats like an RPG, that's gonna be useful I guess but I wonder...How far does this go?" Everything was freaking insane about this whole situation but, whatever thing had saved him clearly was benevolent from its previous actions so, so that meant this had to have a benefit and considering how his life was saved from the very verge of death, Jaune was betting that whatever power he had been granted must be significant right? Going back to the main menu he pressed the _**Attributes**_ section and his own profile come into view, it had a few things. First was his profile picture, smiling about something he didn't know. Next to that was his level and he was listed as Level 3, and he had 25 experience points to the next level.

"Ok, this is crazy but it makes sense. I have RPG elements in my life now, asinine as that may sound." Looking to the rest of the menu, he was surprised to see a stat listing there.

_**Maximum HP:30**_

_**Maximum MP:10**_

_**Attack:23**_

_**Defence:16**_

_**Magical Might:8**_

_**Magical Mending:13**_

_**Strength:12**_

_**Resilience:8**_

_**Agility:10**_

_**Deftness:8**_

_**Charm:7**_

So that was his attributes, his core essence broken down to pure numbers and the like? Man, it was kind of depressing seeing how weak he was, though he supposed there was no real comparison as to what each stat point meant, maybe he was just average? Or maybe it was just the fact that he was level 3 and so was likely near the weakest he would ever be, yeah that was probably it. Grunting, he went back a few menus and to the "Misc" section where he saw a few stranger options first was _**Heal All**_ though when touching it he couldn't do anything with that, _**Handy Heal All**_ which just seemed to be an improved version of the first option a _**Character Builder.**_ Which seemed interesting but he couldn't delve into it now _**Tactics, Quest Catalogue**_ and _**Settings.**_ Deciding to delve into the last one he saw a few options there _**Battle Mode**_ and _**Draconian Quest**_ stood out to him among them. Deciding to look into those later again, he went back to look into the Character Builder section of the menu and was brought up to a whole new thing as his vision was filled with new images. Half of his vision was taken up by what looked to be a list that only had him in it so far.

"Does space mean I will have other people I can use this with? Well, this is an RPG, likely an MRPG so it makes sense to have multiple party members." Selecting himself from the list, he was brought to a sub-menu with a few listings of things. Swords, Sheilds, Sword Mastery, Heroics. From the titles, they seemed like specializations he could take to further power himself up, within a few moments he selected the swords and suddenly his vision zoomed in on a panel from the left side. Listing that he would get a small atk power up when using swords though it cost 3 SP to unlock, sp that Jaune did not have. So this was pointless until he got some of that, though it did seem pretty vital with how in-depth it seemed to go. Exiting from the menus Jaune was brought back to his position on the bed. Looking to the clock it looked like time had slowed a lot while in the menus, he had spent a good ten minutes exploring it felt like. But barely one had passed.

"Alright then, let's get up and see who was my savior is." At that, he nodded, opening the door which creaked a bit upon that, which was a bit humorous to the young man before he stepped outside only to run right into a smaller body than his who just fell to the ground with a cute sound of surprise. Looking down, Jaune smiled a bit seeing the girl there rubbing her back as she got up before turning to him. Her gaze curious, the girl's gaze tracking him up and down as if inspecting him.

"Your up! That's... Good, but how did you recover from those injuries so quickly? Dad said it might take a week for you to fully recover. Though I guess that doesn't matter now does it? Ah, Ruby Rose. at your service. Thank you for the save by the way...I probably would be dead if not for you." The girl, now identified as Ruby had a nice and upbeat tone, but underneath it, he could clearly hear some concern and confusion which forced a sigh from Jaune who didn't quite know himself.

"I honestly have no idea, I think maybe my semblance activated? You know like I can heal better and it activated in the critical moment or something? Also, you saved my life as well with that chant of yours so...Let's just call it even." Looking away for a moment awkwardly, Jaune knew he couldn't quite expose his power? His Semblance? Whatever this video game reality was he couldn't expose it without understanding anything about it really, though if it was as beneficial as it seemed he would have to tell his future teammates for sure. Ruby just agreed with an awkward chuckle as the two just stood in the hallway.

"Uuuh, we have breakfast if you need it? Dad made an extra portion for your thanks, I hope you don't mind a liver and bacon omelet with cheese." The girl clearly almost gagged talking about it, bringing a soft chuckle to Jaune. The thing did indeed sound disgusting but if it was offered who was he to refuse.

"Dad said you need a lot of iron and stuff after you lost so much blood but blech! I am just glad he didn't force Yang or I to eat it."

"Well, if your dad said that's what I need then I will trust him, he has probably had a lot of experience as a huntsman with this kind of thing." He started to walk down the hall, the way that Ruby came from before he was stopped and corrected by the girl who just started a small chat about their chosen profession. Jaune listening idly and occasionally putting in his own comment, feeling better by the moment in the peppy girl's presence.


	2. Chapter 2:First Meetings

**Hello my dear readers once again, I am glad that you all in general liked my fic and that I am getting plenty of reviews and input on everything so that I can make the story the best it can be. I plan to do this for quite a bit as I write other things, its a bit of a workload but it's all fun in the end. Anyways lets get into the reviews.**

**youalwayswereakiddersteve:Well, I hope that I don't dissipoint your interest with how I want things to go**

**TheGenisis:Again, glad you like. Let's hope you continue to like**

**Fanfiction0000:Well then, lets see if I keep that interest eh?**

**Lukenhaft:Yep, I am glad you got the twist I put on things to keep it interesting.**

Jaune walked down the hallways of the Rose household, looking at the walls, admiring the pictures framed of what he presumed to be Ruby's parents and their friends. It was clear who the mother was, the woman in a familiar white hood caring for two little girls in a few of the photos. The smaller of said girls clearly was Ruby herself, though the other one looked wildly different with her long blond hair trailing behind her,

"Hm, I guess your sister really took after your dad huh? You guys don't look very similar at all in these photos." He mused, interrupting Ruby from her ramblings about a new high caliber rifle she was looking at. She looked back to the same photo he was currently staring at, her face coming into a sad smile as they stared at the simple thing. It was an image of her mother, collapsed with a small book of fairytales on her stomach. Ruby and her sister holding onto separate sides of the woman, none of them aware of how that moment had been captured.

"Yeah... Though that may because we are only half-sisters. We share a dad but Yang's mom...Left sometime right after she was born, don't bring that up to around her though! is kind of a sensitive topic around here." That made sense, if something similar happened to him Jaune supposed he would do something similar. Still, in all the images he saw it looked like Ruby's mom took care of Yang like she was her own flesh and blood.

"Well, it seems like your mother is an amazingly kind woman. I can't wait to meet her." He smiled again, before noticing the mood within the hall shifting from happy, kind of casual to one that was overwhelmingly sad. Ruby looking off to the side, clearly she wanted to say something but couldn't for some reason. Thinking back to what he had said, Jaune tried to find what he said wrong. Going back further mentally, he vaguely recalled a small stone structure in the clearing where he saved Ruby almost like a...

"Oh! Oh, crap I am so sorry. I didn't realize she was ah, not with us. I am really sorry for bringing it up. I really, really am. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose your mom like that" He clasped his hands together in an apology. Hoping that the girl could forgive him, he must sound like an insensitive prick right now!

"No, no it's not your fault you didn't know but...Yeah." The girl trailed off a bit, letting an awkward silence hang between them for a few moments, the tension had quickly built up albeit unintentionally. Each passing moment making Jaune feel worse until a loud, rumbling growl came from his stomach. Echoing slightly off the wooden walls, forcing a new blush onto his face as the girl let out a small sound before breaking out into a small fit of giggles as his stomach started to vocalize a protest at its emptiness.

"Uh...I haven't eaten before I saved you, cause I was planning to have breakfast at the ferry station." Ok, so the tension was down now, that was good at least. Thanking his stomach for bringing the interruption he stood up as Ruby grasped his hand and started to drag him along through the corridor and towards the scent of cooking batter and bacon.

"Well then, we better get some food in you before that dragon rears its head again right?" Jaune smiled at her laughing tone, glad that they passed through that moment as he started to walk with her towards the smell of food. Bringing up his favorite Mistrali myth, the story of Theseus and how he went on to slay a minotaur, it wasn't exactly the same stories that he knew Ruby must love but it was close enough he hoped.

Arriving in the kitchen not a moment after he told her of the time Theseus defeated a man who was ripping people apart using tied down trees. Jaune looked to see a large man whistling a happy tune, frying up some bacon as two other people hung by a dining table. Both had their heads buried in their arms and tall glasses of water next to them.

"Morning! I hope you all saved enough food for us! Oh, also the guy woke up and is walking around. So that's a good thing." The girl's bubbly rambling was suddenly interrupted by twin groans from the table, looking up a young blond woman, whom Jaune assumed to be Yang looked to her sister with pleading eyes.

"Rubes I love you but...Could you please tone it down just a tad? Like, I am dealing with a really bad hangover last night, man those Strawberry Sunrises are dangerous. Didn't even feel like I drank that much." The woman let out another pained groan before she looked to the man who her sister was currently grasping and gave him a stink eye.

"Why the heck are you holding my little sister's hand you...Noodle. Wait, aren't you the guy who was sleeping in Ruby's room yesterday, the one that took the Beowulf hit for her?" Letting out a yelp at the comment, Ruby suddenly let go of Jaune's hand with a cherry red blush as the young man gulped a little bit. He knew how bad a pissed off older sister could be, and she was already irritable from the hangover no doubt.

"Yes, I was that "guy" though I just did what anyone else would right? And I would have died if she didn't unlock my aura so we are kind of even there."

"Hmm...Alright, you get a pass, for now, not being cocky or arrogant puts you in a bit higher place but I got my eyes on you alright?" She then let out a small hiss before laying taking a big gulp of water and laying her head in her arms again trying to block out any sound or bright light.

"Yang, please don't harass Ruby's friends, she has a hard enough time making them without your interference. Anyways, what's your name young man?" The clear father of the group spoke up as he lifted an omelet from the pan and handed it off to a waiting Ruby, who quickly dashed to the table. Laying against the counter a bit as another pair of eggs were thrown into the pan to cook, Jaune let out a small breath thinking on how much he should say here.

"The name is Jaune, Jaune Arc sir. May I have your's ?" Hearing a soft chuckle from the dark-haired man, Jaune raised an eyebrow. He didn't get Ruby's last name wrong, did he? If so that was a little black mark on their budding friendship.

"Qrow don't be an ass!" The man spoke in an extra loud tone, just to smirk hearing one curse and a pained cry of dad from the two drunks. Jaune nearly blew out a laugh himself at the scene, managing to only push out a small puff of air. He didn't want to look too rude after all.

"Anyways, my name is Taiyang Xiao-long. My youngest has her mother's last name in case you were wondering. So, you're the Arc boy eh? I guess that explains the crest on your shield and your semblance being a healing type. Y'all were always born to be defenders I guess." Reaching over to the side, Taiyang grabbed a bit of dark red meat to his side and placed it in the cooking egg. The smell of meat cooking wafting through the air as he spoke, though Jaune's mind was elsewhere as he finally noticed the lack of weight on his chest and hips. Where the hell were his weapons and armor?

"Uh...Wait, few questions there. First off, do you know my parents? Second, how do you know what my semblance is? I have only mentioned that idea to Ruby and I know she didn't tell you about that yet. Third, where the heck did you put my stuff? I just woke up in Ruby's room without any of it on."

"Son, you are talking to a veteran huntsmen. Of course, I know who the Arc family is, y'all have saved the lives of almost every huntsmen living on the planet it seems. Hell, I went to school with your Parents. Anyways as to how I know you have a healing semblance, that's kind of obvious ain't it? The only way you would be here talking to me after a day of bed rest after a wound like that would be a self-healing semblance. As for your weapons and luggage, Ruby left them in the living room" Jaune released a sigh of relief at the news, he didn't know what he would do if he lost Crocea Mors, it was the only thing that he had to fight with after all!

"Alright, thank Monty my weapons were not damaged. Anyways, thank you for the food but I think I need to leave right after breakfast. Need to catch the ferry to Vale and check into my hotel, after all, I was supposed to check in yesterday and I can only hope that having a medical emergency and fresh scars are good enough reason to show up late." Jaune groaned at the thought of dealing with everything, he also needed to check in with the people that forged his transcripts. Make sure that everything was fine on that front, those things had cost him five years of allowance and cleaning up the training grounds! They were not going to fail him at the last minute if he could help it.

"Nonsense! I can't have a friends' son staying out in Vale while I have an empty guest room. You can stay in that while you three wait to go to Beacon, you could even get in some last-minute training sessions I bet. Speaking of, Qrow would you mind teaching Jaune here a bit of swordplay?"

"Tai, you know that won't work. He clearly has a longsword and shield combo while Harbinger's sword form is a greatsword. Completely different ways of fighting, I woulda thought a teacher would know that." The low, raspy and quiet voice of the now-identified Qrow creaked out with a low grunt.

" Long, it's fine really. I already paid for the room and everything. Besides I would hate to be a burden on you all."

"Oh come on Jaune, you can spare enough time to do one or two spars at least. You already are late, what is an hour more? I really want to see what you can do, I need to see that shield of yours in action!" Ruby's little whine and pout as she looked to him like that made his small bit of resistance crumble. Sure he would likely embarrass himself as a complete newbie but at least he would be making a friend attend...Beacon with.

"Fine, fine we can do a little spar. Though I gotta admit, it is surprising to hear that you are going to Beacon Ruby, no offense but you look a little young to be attending."

"Uh yeah, stopping a dust robbery and getting the headmaster's attention is a good way to skip grades apparently." She laughed awkwardly before she went back to eating her food just as Tai finished cooking up Jaune's own eggy breakfast.

"Here ya go my boy, a bacon-liver and cheese omelet. You lost a lot of blood yesterday, like just above the fatal line so you will need a lot of iron in your diet. Also before anyone starts any fights I want to look at that back of yours, We need to make sure it is healing right and you won't get any infections." With a resounding yes sir, Jaune carried his breakfast filled with organ meat to the table. Looking at it a bit awkwardly he doubted whether he was hungry enough to eat it, the pain in his stomach making it a resounding yes as he sighed and started to dig in.

After a surprisingly tasty breakfast, Jaune sat on a cushion in the living room. His shirt off and back turned to the man who was currently inspecting it. The young man had gone through similar examinations for various injuries he got over the years but it still didn't make him comfortable with the man currently running his hands over his back.

"Well, I would love to say that your wounds look fine but I can't see anything! Especially not with this big tattoo in the way, hard to believe that Beverly would let her son get one so big."

"What tattoo? I don't have anything like that, the only marks on my back should be those claw marks and some old wounds I got playing with my friends." That was strange, maybe it had something to do with his new semblance? The voice did talk about choosing him or whatever, maybe it was a mark? Still, his old stuff should be there as well.

"Nope, here let me take a picture. Your back is completely clean of all markings except this thing. Either way, your back looks fine enough for a spar." Quickly handing over his scroll to Jaune's open man the young man was surprised to see a perfect circle marking most of his back, said circle was split in half by a thick line and further divided up into smaller sections with diagonal branching lines. Strange, he would have to look into the symbol later.

"Alright, well thanks for that. I should grab my stuff and get out there though," Quickly putting his shirt back on, Jaune rushed to grab his armor and weapon and went off to the bathroom for a quick change. Bringing up the main menu of his game again, Jaune selected Equipment.

After bringing it up, Jaune went onto equip his armor first. _**Half-Plate **_the single piece raised his defense by 16 points, fine enough for starting equipment he guessed. Next, he went to his weapon _**Crocea Mors: Sword Half-A Legendary blade that is said to grow with its wielder. Part of the "Fledgling Hero" set.**_ Weird, so did the text mean it had a secondary effect? Well, for now, it added a nice 10 to his attack stat lastly was the Shield part of his ensemble._** Crocea Mors: Shield Half-The partner to a legendary longsword said to grow with its wielder. Part of the "Fledgling Hero" set.**_ It only added 4 points to his defense, but it also gave him a chance of blocking attacks headed his way. Letting out a small hum the young man quickly equips the stuff only for a new pop up to appear in his sight.

_**You have unlocked a new outfit. "Fledgling Hero" equip it from the equipment screen!**_ Ok, another weird quirk, he saw a small thing at the bottom of his equipment screen with yellow text, selecting it he was brought to a small list of two names. _**Fledgling Hero**_ and _**Pumpkin eater **_curious as all hell, Jaune selected the latter option and suddenly his breastplate was gone from his chest! But, he could tell he still had the stats of it on, and when he switched to the first option, his armor appeared once again on his chest. This was an...Odd feature to be certain, but Jaune could get used to it, he supposed. Still, he exited the first screen and went back to his attributes to check where he was now.

_**Maximum HP:30**_

_**Maximum MP:10**_

_**Attack:33**_

_**Defence:26**_

_**Magical Might:8**_

_**Magical Mending:13**_

_**Strength:12**_

_**Resilience:8**_

_**Agility:10**_

_**Deftness:8**_

_**Charm:7**_

It was a nice boost to his stats certainly, he wished his defense was up a little more but meh, it was enough for now. Exiting out of that menu, the young man went to the options section again and went into the battle mode section, just curious as to what could change. There he saw three options, each one providing a brief description.

_**Free-Form Fighting: everyone moves on their own and takes action according to their own devices there is no turn-based system here but Jaune can still access his abilities and spells through the in-battle menu. Can be changed at any time.**_

_**Active Battle: everyone can take action on their turn unless another effect is in play to increase action count. When someone's turn comes around is dependant on their action meter, when it fills up, one can make their action. The rate at which the action meter fills up is dependant on one's agility. Can be changed on any party member's turn or on the feild.**_

_**Classic Battle: everyone can take one action on there, everyone can take action on their turn unless another effect is in play to increase action count. The order of who can attack when is determined by one's agility. It is possible to increase one's speed enough that they can take 2 turns before an enemy but this needs a lot of set up. Can be changed on any party member's turn or on the feild**_

"Hm, I am not that good with my speed at the moment and I can't use the shield that well either so...Classic might be the best at the moment." Selecting his choice, Jaune felt a slight ripple of energy go through his body at that point before he closed it all out and stood up before cracking his knuckles. Maybe he could get a handle on this new Sembalence quicker than the thought! It's a shame he didn't have SP to test that out though.

With everything set, Jaune exited the bathroom and walked out into the hard to meet a waiting Ruby and Qrow. The latter of which was leaning against his large sword, eyes closed and cringing a little bit.

"So...Why is he out here? I thought it was just going to be a spar between me and Ruby." The dark chuckle from the man as Qrow looked at him said enough, he didn't expect himself to be out here either.

"Little Red here begged me to help her a bit more before she started school and well...I have to go out on a mission tomorrow morning that will take at least a month. So, might as well kill two birds with one stone right?" Taking a deep breath to puff out his chest more, Qrow assumed his combat stance, holding his blade in his right hand and suddenly the world seemed to blur around Jaune a bit before suddenly his perspective shifted to the point where he was viewing his own body from a third-person point of view. Said body had his sword drawn but his shield was malfunctioning for some reason and wouldn't unfold.

"What...The actual hell is this?" _**Qrow Branwen approaches!**_ Suddenly a new menu appeared in front of Jaune, the young man trying to move his body but nothing worked. It seemed he was just...An outside observer and consciousness at his point.

"This has to be something from my battle mode right? I don't think this would happen if I went free form." Hoping his hunch was correct, Jaune just went to the settings and changed his battle mode and suddenly his vision was back to what he was used to and Qrow was rushing at him with a blade in hand, yelping in surprise Jaune stepped a bit to the left, dodging a sloppy blow from the man before he followed up with a slash of his own. Dealing 15 damage to the man and allowing Jaune to back up as Ruby came in to deal a swift pair of sweeping slashes with her blade, spinning with the blade to keep up her momentum as Jaune went back to Classic mode. Everyone suddenly freezing up again and falling into idle animations.

"This...This is going to take some adjustment. But I think I can do it, for now though let's fight." It was his turn again, and now that he could calmly asses things again, he felt that he could move his perspective somewhat. He was able to look around the battlefield at almost any angle he wished. So, it was like he took control of the Camera in the game? Anyways, looking at his options only _**Attack **_and _**Items **_were lit up, probably because he didn't have any _**Abilities**_ or _**Spells **_so he selected his only offensive option. Qrow then lit up, with a ton of symbols on his body. All of them have arrows pointing down with a 4, likely noting debuffs? Everything else was making sense so far, why not this?

What followed like a little mindless session of Jaune attacking, Qrow responding by attacking either him or Ruby. It was a slow, pretty boring and monotone fight to be honest. Though Jaune supposed that they were in the low levels of an MRPG, those were usually pretty mindless until you started gaining levels and abilities. Still, Jaune was plenty sure that if he didn't have Classic Mode turned on he would have lost long ago with how fast Qrow was, even in his weakened state. At the end of the fight, the world distorted a bit as a final message popped up. _**Qrow Branwen is defeated. Jaune gained 65 Experience points. Jaune leveled up! Level New spell learned, Jaune learned "Heal"**_

_**Stats**_

_**Maximum HP:30+6=36**_

_**Maximum MP:10+3=13**_

_**Attack:33+5=38**_

_**Defence:26+6=32**_

_**Magical Might:8+2=10**_

_**Magical Mending:13+8=21**_

_**Strength:12+5=17**_

_**Resilience:8+7=15**_

_**Agility:10+3=13**_

_**Deftness:8+2=10**_

_**Charm:7+3=10**_

After that, everything shifted back to normal for Jaune in a moment. His eyes refocusing into the first-person view. Yep, that was certainly strange, looking at Qrow who was currently bent down on the ground and Ruby they didn't seem affected at all by the turn-based system he implemented. Was that just viewable to him? Approaching the man, he offered up a hand to him.

"Do you need some help up sir? You really look like you should get to bed, and you shouldn't have fought us while so hungover you know." Taking the young man's hand Qrow let out a slight chuckle as he pulled himself up with a shake of the head.

"Nah, I have taken out plenty of Grimm while a lot more hungover before. This was not by choice mind you, but still, I just went easy on you kids for training. But you are right, I am tired as hell now. I also need to leave real early so goodnight Kid. Oh, and Jaune, you have decent form, nothing too bad or good there but if you want to be a huntsman, well you need to make that a lot better if you don't want to be killed out there." On that cheery note, the man ruffled Ruby's hair before grabbing his blade and slinking off to the house before collapsing onto the nearest couch.

"So um..Great job with the scythe there? You did a lot more damage than I ever could at least, though I really do have to go soon." At his statement, Ruby let out a small sigh of disappointment before nodding her head.

"Alright I guess, I can wait to see that shield shift for a week. But do you really have to go? I could introduce you to some of my friends from Signal, few as they may be, and we can hang out. Maybe we could talk more stories even! No one else around here seems interested in the things, says it's all little kid stuff."

"Yes, I really do Ruby, sorry. But uh, do you have your scroll on you? We could exchange numbers and chat that way. I also promise to hang out with you as much as I can once Beacon starts up to make up for the week missed alright?" After a few minutes of slight pouting, the girl nodded and got out her scroll.

"Ok. But I will hold you to that promise mister! You are going to be my only non-familial relationship there, and I know Yang is just going to spend most of her time with her own friends so you will be the reason I am not alone!" Chuckling a bit the young man nodded before he got his own scroll out for the number exchange.

"Of course, an Arc always keeps his word after all. Now, I need to pack up a few things and then I will be on my way, be sure to thank your dad again for me by the way." With that, the young man rushed off to collect his few belongings that he had left which were not on him. Determined to find out more about his strange semblance, and how he could use it for his goals.


	3. Chapter 3:A new home

**Hello my dear readers, I join you once again with my story. I hope you are all enjoying it and are looking forward to how the story itself develops. I have some good news from the past few weeks, I got a beta reader for this story. They want to be refered to as typhonix and I will refer to them as such. They are going to be helping me orginize my ideas, giving chapters a once over and and contribute their own ideas to refine things and make them the best they can possibly be! Anyways, I think that you all will like this chapter, not too much Gamer stuff but I do hope the characters make up for that. Also, holy crap this story nearly has 80 follows and over 50 favorites, I did not expect it to grow this quickly compared to my other stuff. Glad y'all like it though. Anyways, onto the reviews!**

**To the Guest:I am glad you like it so far, and hey I did update so there ya go.**

**To Echonic:Yeah, turn based combat is gonna be a thing for any JRPG Gamer Story, but I am glad you think it works here. I plan on delving well into it and I promise it won't all be turned based like now. That is why I let Jaune change the battle styles after all.**

**0akarigan0:Soy feliz usted se gusta mi cuento. El siguiente es aqui. (Hope I did that right)**

**That is all of the reviews. Now, lets dive right into the story shall we?**

Coerca Mors gleamed in the sunlight as Jaune delivered a finishing strike to the monster in front of him, the blade cleanly chopping through the Beowulf. The monstrous thing stayed up for a moment before it comically fell backwards onto the ground, dissipating into shadow, as dead Grimm always did. Before long the only sign that the creature had ever existed was the small notification appearing to tell Jaune that he had won yet again, and earned a whopping 5 experience points, and 20 lien. He sighed at that, and clicked through his mental menus until he was out of combat.

Checking through his options again, the blonde let out an annoyed breath upon seeing that he was 30 points away from his next level up, still stuck on level 4 after beating Ruby's Uncle. He decided that grinding like this just outside the walls of Vale wasn't going to cut it. _I'm just not earning enough experience for it to be of any use, _he thought. The realization was a bit annoying, but it did seem like the lupine monsters were only the most basic of Grimm, meaning they would only give the bare minimum exp.

Obvious as it may have been, the fact still annoyed him, as he'd been excited to level up again. Sure, he didn't know exactly what each stat point did for him right now, but when he leveled, the numbers went up. A basic rule of all MRPGs was that bigger numbers were better, and he certainly _felt _stronger than he had been during his spar with Qrow. It was hard to tell, because he'd felt stronger in that spar than he ever had before, but he still felt a difference after he'd leveled up from "defeating" the hung-over, disinterested professional.

Obviously he'd never have stood a chance against a genuine huntsman trying his hardest, even with Ruby's help… or his new power, based on the effort he still needed to put in to kill these Beowulves. He may have been stronger than he was before he unlocked his fever dream of a semblance, but if he had to put effort into killing the lowest of the low, even if the effort was miniscule, then he'd never have been able to take on someone that looked as badass as Qrow.

His mind wandered back to his father, and what the man may have thought of his abilities now. Jaune's father had made it pretty clear how little he believed in Jaune's capabilities. "I wasn't even going to _try_ training you, but your mother convinced me to give you a shot. In a world where I had my way, you wouldn't even know the basics of aura, and that would be for the better! Months wasted training, and you're still hopeless with a blade. All this training has done is embolden that idiotic dream of yours to go to Beacon… well go then. We'll be expecting you back when you can't even get through initiation, or when you realize you're only going to get yourself killed."

Those had been the last words his father had said to him before kicking Jaune out of the house with only a backpack, two hours to fill it, and his Grandfather's legacy strapped to his hip; a constant reminder of both his grandfather's approval, and his father's disappointment. Jaune imagined his father was fully expecting him to return with his tail between his legs… but with this new semblance? Things were different. His father had been right about one thing: Jaune had been terrible with a sword. Now though?

According to what he'd seen, Jaune had actually managed to make a difference in his spar alongside Ruby, and she was WAY stronger than him! He still had no idea what his turn-based actions looked like to an outside eye, but if people like Qrow and Ruby were calling his form "standard" then he was far better off than he had been before. One thing he knew for sure: he wasn't going to be fighting outside of _classic mode_ until his actual, physical skills improved to match.

Upon deciding to check his funds as well, Juane was surprised to see that he had managed to wrack up 500 lien in his time here! _Well, the money is a nice bonus at least_ he mused, letting out a sigh. He went to go check his **HP**; he needed to see how much he had recovered after all. Once the menu was up for him to look at, Jaune's face paled at the number. He was at 3/30! Three? What...What the hell was going on? It had been at least an hour or more since he had sparred with Qrow, that meant he should have recovered a bit right?

His body naturally should have recovered some outside of the fights, unless... Letting out a loud, echoing curse at his luck, Jaune quickly swapped through all his various menus until he landed on his **Spells** section, and there; right where he could see it was his recently obtained **Heal** Spell. Yep, that sealed it. He could use healing spells outside of battle, which likely meant that he couldn't heal naturally anymore. Letting loose a low grumble of disappointment at himself he looked over the **Heal** Spell to see what it would cost to maintain himself. **Cost: 3 MP. Restores at least 25 HP to a single party member.** Letting loose a sigh of relief, the prospective huntsman activated the magic, and a green aura came from his body and a nice warm feeling washed over him.

Checking his health pool again, Jaune smiled seeing it back up to 30. Doing a bit of mental math, he knew those numbers didn't add up. Letting out a contemplative hum, Jaune thought of what might be the reason why he healed more than 25 before face palming a bit. Magical Mending! It was only in the stat's name! That stat must improve how much his spells could heal. Good to know. _Either way, I should probably take this wake up call as a sign that I should stop testing my semblance and actually move onto Vale like I said I would_.

Stretching his arms a bit as he sheathed his weapons, Jaune started his short jog towards the city walls. Thankfully the ferry wasn't too bad of an experience. He had even managed to retain his lunch this time around! How he managed that when most times he would usually be blowing chunks into a trash can right now eluded him, but hey; he wasn't going to complain about that! No way no how. Chuckling to himself a bit, the blond stopped his short jog right outside the city walls, the gray stone structures that rose up into the heavens. The things seemed a little intimidating to him right now, but he supposed they would feel welcoming in time right? They were the main things keeping Grimm from overwhelming Vale, after all.

Getting into the security checkpoint line with a soft groan, the teen looked around at all the people going through the place. He took particular note of one girl in a monochrome outfit and a bow, nervously looking around as if she expected to be rejected at any time. Jaune had to resist his instinct to reassure the girl that it would be alright; they looked like they could handle themselves after all. At least he hoped she could from that wicked looking rectangular blade on her back. That thing looked thick enough to be _two_ swords! If she couldn't handle herself than what chance did he have?

"Hello sir. What is your reason for coming to Vale?" Hearing the gruff voice brought Jaune out of his little daydream and back to the police officer currently staring him down.

"Oh that, ah… I am here to attend Beacon?" The young man suddenly started to pat around himself, trying to find where he had put that damn letter of acceptance he treasured so much. It was the only proof that he had indeed been accepted!

"Is that a question sir? And do you have some official documentation for this?"

"No! No, it isn't a question, I _am_ attending Beacon. Going to Beacon to be a huntsman and honor the family legacy you know?" Letting out an awkward chuckle Jaune started to mentally panic a bit before his hand suddenly landed upon a paper on his backside and he let out a breath of relief as he pulled it out.

"And here is my acceptance letter. It has Ozpin's fancy emerald seal and everything you see. You can run it through any of that fancy detection software and you will see it is the Genuine article!" With a clear bit of skepticism in his eyes, the security guard took the letter from Jaune's hands while looking at it.

"I...Don't think that will be necessary, sir." Jaune almost started sweating from the tone of the man's voice. He was probably seen as the worst criminal ever by far! Either that or the most incompitent Huntsman-to be ever; neither of which exactly gave Jaune the most confidence in himself. Though he supposed that the latter was better, as it would get him into the city at the very least. Hearing a very bewildered hum from the man before getting the letter passed back to him, Jaune nervously looked to see the guard's neutral face.

"Everything seems to be in order... At least the official stuff is. We just need to check your bags, register your weapon, and you should be fine to move on through."

"T-Thank you. But I, ah, don't actually have bags... or I _did_ but they were kinda destroyed in a Grimm attack." That was actually true! His backpack holding his, like, _entire life_ was ripped apart when he'd saved Ruby! Even the stuff that wasn't ripped apart was likely soaked in blood from his wounds. Yet again Jaune thanked his absurdly varying luck that his acceptance letter had somehow been spared that fate.

"Grimm attack? Sir, we would appreciate it if you filed a report on that as soon as possible. The City of Vale would like to be aware of any and all Grimm activity near its walls. Even if, from the looks of it you managed to slay the grimm with minimal injury to yourself."

"Oh but it didn't happen here. Like, It happened yesterday… Or was it the day before? Anyways it happened as I was passing through Patch. Another Beacon hopeful had missed a Beowulf during a little training exercise and I threw my… Bag at the thing. Yes I threw that, to distract the Grimm for a few moments to let the girl finish it off." It wasn't entirely a lie. He had thrown his bag at the monster after all… Even if it was still attached to his back, it still counted right? He wasn't really lying here and the man would never believe it if he said he had nearly died and awakened some miraculous healing semblance at the last possible moment. The half lying felt bad, but Jaune truly believed that sometimes bad things were necessary to make room for good, or even great things. The "acceptance letter" in his pocket was proof enough of that.

After letting loose a groan, the officer just motioned for the boy to continue on, saying something about Jaune being clearly no threat to Vale. Smiling at that bit of praise, Jaune moved on to the weapon registration and jotted down the information about Coerca Mors that he knew before he was allowed into Vale proper.

Once he was in the city, Jaune rushed his way over to the arranged hotel and gave his deepest apologies, bringing up the same incident to the people that operated the small place he would be staying at as his excuse. Though obviously when he did he wouldn't include his own injury this time around. That would just be embarrassing.

"So I was bleeding a little heavily, thankfully the girl managed to get me to her Dad's home where I was patched up and was required to spend the rest of the day in bed recovering. Please forgive me for not arriving on time. I really couldn't ignore her and well...That got my stupid ass injured in the process." _Damn it! My _next _first impression won't be embarrassing, I'll make sure of it _the boy thought as he was bowed before the elderly couple, his hands clasped together.

"That's perfectly fine dear, I am just glad you managed to get out alright. You paid up front for the week, so there is no real issue. I do hope that the girl herself is a bit more careful now that she doesn't have a sweet boy like you looking out for her." The elderly woman gently pet Jaune's head, causing him to erupt into a blush before he shook his head and let himself be led to the room he would be staying for the next week. Jaune decided to nap until it was evening. The place where he was supposed to meet this mysterious man didn't open until after eight anyways.

**HP and MP fully restored after Resting in a Bed**. The soft flute tune brought a smile to Jaune's face as he woke up and stretched a little bit, feeling nice and rested from the little nap. _That_ was certainly a major perk of his new abilities.

Looking at the clock, he saw it was half past seven. There was plenty of time for him to get himself to the club and finally meet his contact in person. Getting up and doing a quick sweep of the room to be sure he wasn't leaving anything necessary behind, Jaune was about to leave before he had a small revelation and took his oh so important letter out of his back pocket and placed it into one of the dressers. _Can't just leave this lying around, or in my pocket where it'll probably get lifted considering the crowd I'll be mingling with_.

Though thinking about it, he should probably get a new backpack or bag to replace his old one. Those things were really useful to help carry stuff around. Thinking about the time, he probably had enough time to quickly get one if he looked for a Huntsman Supply store. There should be one somewhere around here hopefully...

Heading out after triple checking that he had his room key on him the young man dashed off to the market street where he found just what he needed. It wasn't something specifically for Huntsmen, but it was a sports and camping supplies store, the perfect place to find a high quality backpack. Price wasn't an issue, thankfully, after his lucrative grinding session earlier. All he had to do was choose a proper bag for his items now. As he got into the store, Jaune spotted near the back were two lines of bags, one with smaller daypacks and the other with larger backpacks. After a small bit of internal debate, Jaune decided the latter was probably better for him. He could use it out on missions, it fit his form nicely, and you never knew how much you might need to cary! After paying about 70 Lien for the new bag, Jaune was surprised to see a notification appeared in his face.

**You've unlocked the Items Bag, Equipment Bag, and Important items parts of your Items menu. No matter what, you always have room in your bag for more! Any items you want to use in battle must be on the Party Member's Person before hand or else it is just stuck in your bag until you exit combat. Any food or drink placed in the bag will have its shelf life extended by a factor of 10, but will eventually expire.**

Infinite storage for his stuff? The perks of this strange semblance just kept on rolling in! It also seemed like a safe place to store his more valuable items from now on. Chuckling a bit to himself, Jaune mentally closed the notification before walking on his way, his newly named 'bag of holding stuff' bouncing occasionally against his back.

After a walk through the streets of Vale Jaune finally came across his destination: Junior's Club. This was where he had agreed to meet with his mysterious benefactor, and it was here that they would finally see each other face to face. Jaune took in a deep breath to calm himself. It was fine. This was going to go just swimmingly! _I'm only walking into a well established den of criminals that inhabit Vale's underbelly. A place where a Beacon hopeful like me would easily get his ass kicked three ways from Haven, a place where- NO! Knock it off, me!_ He slapped his cheeks and cracked his knuckles to get his mind back on track and mentally prepare himself again. He just had to be confident. This wasn't a place just for criminals to gather. It was also somewhere to dance, and dancing was his forte.

Taking a few steps forward, Jaune smiled as he walked to the door. Yes, he might not be the best with a sword, or with a shield, or even at killing Grimm. He might not be the strongest or the fastest, but there was one thing that Jaune could do better than anyone else. He could dance his ass off on the floor and leave everyone shocked. With that confidence starting to flow through him and a soft chuckle, Jaune paid the entry fee and got himself inside.

He stepped through the doors to arrive right in the middle of the raving club, noticing that a few of the pillars were being supported by little more than duct-tape and hope. Not a long term solution to whatever hurricane had apparently demolished the foundations and support, but it looked like it'd hold until he got what he came for.

Peering through the crowd, Jaune finally managed to spot him. The man that was going to get him into Beacon, the man he had come to meet. His bowler hat and ginger hair, along with that pristine white suit were exactly as the man had described. It was the man known online only as Torchlight.

Neo let out a silent groan as she leaned against the bar. Why the hell did she have to be here again? Like really, why did Roman have to drag her along to meet some random business partner? She would honestly much rather be at home doing... Well, almost anything else other than just sitting around waiting for some guy to appear.

Looking up at the barman, she tapped the bar itself to get his attention before her hands went flying into her order. She wanted her own little custom drink she always got here; it was essentially a mudslide with vanilla flavouring mixed in and spun around to make a cute little swirl. It was the only kind of alcohol that she could actually stand to swallow. Not because she had a poor constitution or anything, she just hated the flavour of the crap. She hated the lack of control that came alongside inebriation even more. Plus, for her semblance to work and be effective the girl needed to be aware of her surroundings at all times to make a convincing illusion.

Once the drink had been made, Neo gave the bartender a happy nod and motioned her thumb at Roman, who currently had his back turned. It was going on the man's tab instead of her's. If her boss was going to drag her out on a shitty night like this, he was going to pay for her drinks at least! While the drink was finally passed over, Neo showed off her the drinking age within Vale was only seventeen and she met that easily. Sure, the law was put in place partially because of the people that made her life much harder, but then again without some Huntsmen around to play with, her job would probably get very boring very quickly.

Sipping on the sweet drink, the girl heard Roman say something about the guy being a bit late, and Neo rolled her eyes as she looked to the time. It was only like, ten minutes after the club opened and there was a sizeable line out the door the last time she'd peaked. Of course he was going to be late. Tapping Roman's side she gave him the usual questioning glance. What were they doing here again? Sure, she knew about giving the client some sort of paperwork they'd forged for him, but not much beyond that. Forging stuff was all Roman's side of the business. She was more the sneaky, stabby, stealy side of things.

"Didn't I go over this before Neo? This kid wants to get a physical copy of the faked transcripts I made for him, as well as a face to face meeting to make sure I won't screw him over. As dumb as he is for trying to sneak into Beacon unqualified he isn't completely stupid." The man got out one of his cigars and started to puff. Before the barman could speak up about the no smoking section, he cockily pointed upwards to the sign indicating the divide. The barman walked off as Roman let out a pleased sigh and smiled to Neo, who gave a small grin back while sipping her Swirl.

"I mean, I _could_ just screw him over anyways, and there's literally nothing he could do about it, but at least this kid's taking some precautions. That's more than I can say for most of the people I did forging jobs for. Why shou-" Neo cut him off with a glare that she knew he'd understand. Why the hell was Roman wasting his, and more importantly _her_ time just to make a random forgery client more comfortable?

Roman's visible eye narrowed as he let smoke breathe out through his nostrils. "Think about this Neo." He sounded tired.

"Nothing about this guy adds up. He seemed like a real goody two shoes online, but he still wants to bullshit his way into _Beacon _of all places? Either he's a complete fool, or he's going to rat on us. I want to see him in person to get a feel for what he's really like. If I think he's going to squeal, then I'm going to put the fear of god into him myself. He'll know _exactly _what's waiting for him if he double crosses us... I may need you to turn up your intimidation if that ends up being the case... but if it's not?" Neo didn't like the look on his face.

"Neither of us are too happy about our new... employer." He said in a hushed tone. "The bitch didn't tell us much, but we know that her plans have something to do with Beacon. If this kid really is naive enough to think that forging his way into Beacon is a good idea, then he might be malleable enough to feed us information once he's in there, or even... well, speak of the devil..."

Turning her attention to the crowd again, Neo's eyes landed on a tall, lanky young man who had walked into her view. Eyeing him up and down, the girl noticed that the most developed muscles he had were his legs. Was that because he used proper form and developed that first? Or was it a sign that he was just really good at running away? Either way, he gave them a nervous smile that just screamed to her inner klepto. This kid was an easy mark, perhaps one of the easiest she would ever have. Her left hand went to Hush, curling and uncurling around the cane like handle, and her right held onto her drink, just to keep her idle hands from straying.

"Well well, if it isn't Mr. Bifrost himself in the flesh! I know I know, it must be strange hearing my words this time around and not reading them through a screen, but I assure you I am in fact the Torchlight you know and love." Neo rolled her eyes at Roman's introduction. Must he make such a jackass production out of everything? Regardless of Roman's choice of introductions, she couldn't be bothered to be interested in the conversation, but did listen in anyways as she finished her first Swirl and ordered another, this one a tad larger.

"Y-yeah, nice to meet you Sir. I'm here to pick up the documents and ask a few questions if..If you don't mind." Oh wow, he was acting so politely nervous around them. It was adorable! She definitely wanted to get some teasing in later if she could get the chance. She couldn't steal from him, sure, screwing over clients like that was bad for business after all, but she could certainly take him out for a spin of embarrassment later on in the night. The idea itself made small puffs of air come from her nose, the equivalent of her laughing. There was a good chance that Roman might eat the kid alive before the night was through, so she may as well get some amusement out of him first. Yeah, that would make this boring night a whole lot more interesting. The girl began to formulate plans on how to get the maximum amount of embarrassment from the boy before actually making the guy super pissed at her. She smiled wickedly to herself as the boys talked and the smooth taste of her Swirl went down her throat.

* * *

**AN: It's me, your friendly neighborhood beta. The name's Typhonyx, and I'll be helping Geosin out with proofreading, editing, and storywork. Don't worry, while we'll both work on the story outlines Geosin will almost always be the one actually putting words on the page… I'll just help those words flow a bit better ;) We DO in fact have long term plans for this story written out, but we are both humble writers and hope that we can do a good enough job entertaining you chapter to chapter to keep you around long enough for that planning to pay off. If you have any complaints, recommendations, or advice on storywork, pacing, or editing then please leave a review, or PM me (my official username is all lowercase). We strive to be better and grow as writers, so any feedback is appreciated. See y'all next time.**


	4. Chapter 4:A fun night

**Hello my dear readers, it has been a while hasn't it? Well I do hope that you all enjoy my work here, because honestly it has been a bit of a trial getting myself to actually write but I wanted to do it for you guys. Anyways, thanks again to my beta reader **** Typhonyx, there isn't any update from him this time around and no reviews cause I really don't want to keep you all waiting any longer for it so. Here we go right into the story.**

Jaune looked at the man with a gulp, he was nervous as all hell. Despite all his efforts to calm himself down and approach this with a calm and rational mind, he knew that at any time this could end badly for him. He was surrounded by criminals after all! But, he needed to put on a brave face in front of Torchlight at least, the man looked at him with a gaze that would intimidate any man he was sure of it! Gulping audibly Jaune let out a breath.

"Well, I was thinking if. Even after this transaction, we could keep in touch for anything? Like well, if I needed information from you, you could probably get it right?" This man in front of him was capable of getting him into Beacon after all! Who knows what the guy could do if he really wanted to do so, he might as well try to occupy his time with something else right? Keep those resources put onto something good instead of evil and everything would work out better than if he didn't.

"Hmm, now that's a job I haven't taken in a while, information broker. While I might be a little rusty in that department, I should be able to get my network up and running fine again. Though I must ask, why would a fine, upstanding man who cheated his way into Beacon like you continue to associate with a man like myself, hm?" Crap! From the way Roman was speaking, he had clearly wanted something like this to happen! Time to figure out some way out of this, or at least to turn it around into his favor. Maybe play to his ego?

"Well you see sir, I mean you obviously have such vast resources that a mere student like myself couldn't hope to compete with and...Well, I might sometimes need information that only one of your prestige and skill could obtain? Things that can't really be gotten...Legally, so well I already have a connection to you. You know I am good for the money when you ask for it, my payment to you did go through right? So why bother trying to set up my own information network when I can just use yours?" Inwardly, Jaune was screaming at himself for doing this. The guy obviously wasn't going to buy anything that he said! Sure, he might be interested in money but he wouldn't go for a deal like this right? Money for information, for criminal information, wasn't something that he had any experience with but it was all he had on his mind that he could pay Torchlight for. It was the only thing that the only Torchlight could provide to him that he couldn't get elsewhere to keep suspicion off of him.

"Hmm...That does sound quite interesting, and you are right after all. Someone with my amount of influence in the criminal underground could get you information a lot quicker than anything the huntsmen could provide you. More useful stuff, fake identities, the location of their next of kin for extortion maybe even down to their damn dental records. This does sound like fun..." The way Torchlight trailed off, the look in his eyes and a plain smirk on the ginger's face all told Jaune that he was doing things right here. Jaune needed to go further into this as he reached into his bag to cover upbringing 200 lien from his reserves, leaving him at a mere 230 left in his funds.

"If you want, I could give you just a basic cover fee for just doing this in the first place for me. If you want that is. Though, I doubt that what I got is that impressive right? This is, the rest of what I have managed to save up since purchasing the...Well, you know." Yeah, he purchased his transcripts, it wasn't something he wanted to spout out. Each time he did, it reminded him that he wasn't good enough to get in a legit way, he had to rely on a criminal to send him the chance at being a huntsmen like he wanted. Taking the stack of bills from his bag and placing it onto the counter he gave his best, most confident smile hoping that he wouldn't be called out on his shit.

"Oh well look at this, the bumbling aspiring hero has some talent in making money after all! Well, I am going to tell you right now, a measly 200 lien isn't going to get you much more than say, lightly in-depth browser search. But I do appreciate the cute efforts, now I will take this for now. Just as payment for taking up the precious time of my lovely assistant and I alright? The next time you ask for information on anything not basic though, I will give you the typical rate I charge for my clients who decide to pursue this path of yours." Smoothly following those words, Roman reached over and wrapped his arms around the cash before pushing it over closer to himself. He then started to slip the various notes into his pocket, mouth moving silently as it was counted up.

"That's in the future, however, and I much prefer to stick in the here and now dear Bifrost. And as far as we are concerned, I have your print copy of those beloved transcripts of yours. Hot off the presses." Jaune nodded as he took the papers eagerly before gently placing the things in his bag, glad that things were going smoothly. At least, he thought it was going smoothly. Now did he have any more questions about what was going on? Well, he did in fact, looking over he noticed a girl sitting next to the ginger. From the way she was dressed and the fact that she was the only other person sitting next to Roman, he assumed that she was his partner. Though she was strangely silent throughout the whole transaction.

"Right so, speaking of the now I do have something you could look into. Have, have you ever heard of really strange but powerful semblances? Ones that seem to defy all logic and reason almost like magic?" First off, he needed to know as much as he could about his own weird-ass power. He could probably figure out a lot of the mechanics himself through experimentation but still, Jaune had no fucking idea on where it could come from!

"Like, the kind of powers that could potentially bend reality to what someone wants it to be? That they can influence stuff that semblances shouldn't be able to?" It was better not to get into specifics after all. Though, as he spoke. He almost felt a murderous aura coming from Roman for a few moments, sending a shiver down his spine before it vanished suddenly. Did he misspeak?

"Maybe, I might have heard of that but I can't think about it right now. Though , I do think there is an element you are missing here." The slightly hushed tone of Roman's speech caused Jaune to start tensing up. What, was he going to be threatened or something by chance?

"We are at a club! This means we shouldn't be spending all our time at this stuffy old bar, in fact, I think you should take my dear associate here out onto the dance floor and have a bit of fun there! I, sadly, am too much of a clutz to go out there without injuring someone so I will stay back and cheer for you." That made the young man release a lot of the tension from his body, so he just wanted him to take the girl currently downing a drink out on the dance floor? Well, that would work just fine in fact! That was like, the only place where he could actually show off some skills after all. With the clink of glass against the bar, the girl with multicolored hair stood up and offered her hand which the man graciously took before heading off to the floor. As he walked, he couldn't help but feel the pair of eyes staring at his back from the bar.

Trying to ignore that and just relax and get into his groove, the young man just closed his eyes and started to listen to the music, focus on the girl in front of him and not fucking up. The music playing wasn't exactly his thing, the thumping notes and base drops now and then were just not what he was into. Though the experienced dancer was able to find the beat.

"One, two one-twos." Yeah, there it was, opening his eyes to look at the girl in front of him, who gave him a bit of a sly look just as he was starting to get into his groove. And suddenly he felt his foot being pulled and he fell forward missing hitting Neo by just a few centimeters and crashing into the floor with a hard thud. Looking up, he saw a bit of concern in the woman's eyes before she offered him a hand which he gladly took, but when he tried pulling himself up the arm holding onto his seemed to shatter and he fell right back down to the ground with a groan. Growling a bit now, he saw the girl trying to conceal silent giggles. Getting up, he brought the woman's attention to him with a grunt.

"Alright, nice semblance you got there but can we actually like...Dance for a bit?" He spoke, but staring into the heterochromatic eyes of hers he could see something, something that he had seen hundreds of times during his years growing up with his horde of sisters. She was messing with him for her amusement. She gave him a slight nod before extending a hand to him for a proper dance. Despite the large crowd and club music clashing with the style she wanted. Not that Jaune Minded,, he gladly took her hand and tugged her a bit and when he saw the image start to shatter again, he turned around to see the real one there, waiting to slice his belt with a blade extended from her umbrella. Nothing that would actually harm him of course, just to cause embarrassment.

"So that's your game eh? Well, sorry to say but I grew up surrounded by sneaky girls all waiting to embarrass and make their brother blush. You're gonna have to come up with some new tricks to keep getting me like that." He smiled as he spoke, lightly flicking her head a bit as he challenged the illusionist to a battle of embarrassment. Now that he had caught onto her, he was going to play along. If only to make their time out here more worth it.

Thusly, the two teens engaged in a small "battle of wits" as they did a simple dance throughout the dance floor, weaving in and out of the crowd. Each trying to stay one step in front of the other, Neo doing her best to casually step on his feet. Make him trip or spill someone's drink and Jaune constantly taking steps to avoid that, though most of the time he did end up on the wetter end of a splash zone than not. Even if he knew he could have avoided it! But whatever, even as his clothes began to reek of various flavors of vodka and gin Jaune didn't mind all too much. As whenever he did manage to avoid or outdo one of Neo's new childish tactics the pouty face she made after doing so caused Jaune to break out into chuckles himself, being reminded of the happy times he had back home. The times before he had that large fight with dad... Damn it why did he have to bring down his own mood? He had also learned the girl preferred to be called "Neo" through a complex game of charades and wrong answers.

Shaking his head and stepping closer again, Jaune decided to show off a little bit of his more advanced dancing skills next time the girl struck. The woman had just used an illusion to introduce his face to yet another part of the dance floor so she likely wasn't going to follow up with the same tactic. She might try another spill or she would go after him herself in a disguise! Peeling his eyes a bit, he saw someone matching her height approaching him slowly. Dancing through the crowd like a feather through the wind before she arrived near him and the young man couldn't resist. When Neo went to hook his foot with her umbrella yet again, he tried it, doing a small pivot to face her his other foot came to continue the move when one foot got caught on the other sending him to the ground without the girl even doing anything! That wasn't right though, he had practiced that fancy hop spin a million times! Grunting he looked at the girl with a grimace

"Shut up and stop laughing. I was able to do that move just last week I swear! I can...I can show you something more difficult if you want me to prove it!" That caused Neo to pause a bit before a devilish smirk appeared on her face and she nodded, motioning for a few other people in the crowd to come over. Crap, he had a bigger audience now, that wasn't good! Well, no time to back out now. Letting out a breath he smiled before he went over the steps in his mind as he did them, jump, do a bit of a half-flip mid-air and land in a handstand. As he went to do the last action though, he was off in his positioning leading his hand to slip out from under him and a desperate recovery as he walked forward in his handstand for a bit before just crashing into a pillar in a heap, his ass above his head and leaning against the pillar some as Neo came up with that sick smile on her face. Clearly doing her silent laugh at him, growling to himself Jaune wondered what the hell was wrong with him. He really had preformed these moves dozens of times over in his little self-training sessions. So why the hell was he not doing them right why wasn't he deft enough... No that couldn't be it, right?

Bringing up his Menu once more and checking his stats there, he cursed seeing that his deftness, a quantifiable statistic was his lowest stat, ties with Charm. Jaune knew that he was always awkward as all hell so he had just assumed that was converted into stats but... They had actually made him worse at something? That was...Depressing news, so his semblance wasn't completely beneficial with no downsides. Whatever, exiting out of the menu. Jaune grunted before rolling off the pillar and up straight, the disturbance causing the majorly cracked thing to crumble a bit more, not enough for the entire pillar to collapse but a couple rocks fell from the midpoint right towards the booming speakers currently pumping music through the building.

"Yeah yeah laugh it up. I guess I am rustier than I thought but hey, at least I went for it right?" He then started away again eager to pursue their game for a bit longer, as it obviously was one of the best parts of his night so far despite the embarrassment it caused. There was a fun game of teasing there and he wanted to continue it whenever possible. As they went towards the back, closer to the stage where music was being pumped out. The music itself seemed...Off, like a stranger than usual. Corrupted, ignoring Neo's attempts to fool him for the moment the blond looked behind him and saw one of the speakers closest to him pulsating in a strange way the whole thing seemed to be leaning forward a bit more than usual. In fact, it even looked like the wire that was holding it up seemed to be straining only bearly able to keep the big thing up.

"Crap that thing's gonna fall I need to, I need to tell someone quick." Looking around, he saw the DJ taking requests for songs, perfect. When he started to walk over to the booth, tracking the speaker out of the corner of his eye in case it snapped sooner than he was expecting. The young man saw a slight disturbance of light in front of the speaker for a moment, that had to be Neo's quirk activating and looking up at the amp, it was on its very last legs! Rushing forward as fast as he could towards the suspended thing Jaune hoped that he could get underneath the big noise amplifier in time. A sharp snap echoed throughout the floor as the suspension wire finally gave out sending the bit of machinery crashing down onto those in front of it to crush them with its weight.

Or it would have if Jaune hadn't taken advantage of his tall stature and put his arms upwards to catch the tool of metal and plastic. Normally, Jaune's arms likely would have been crushed from doing such a feat but, if his dexterity had decreased due to his lack of Deftness surely his Strength stat being plenty high meant he could lift more than he could before right? As braced himself, catching the thing in his arms, the impact almost making him fall over but he held. He was able to stop the thing from hurting everyone, including a Neo who just appeared in front of him with a smirk on her face while he slowly lowered the still thumping speaker down onto the ground with a loud groan. His arms aching from the impact and having to support such a heavy item at all. Yeah, after that Jaune was pretty done for the night, he didn't think he should even stay out for very much longer anyway.

"Come on Neo, let's go back and chat with Roman for a bit about...Well, everything I guess. Get this finished and we can both get home and sleeping in some beds. I know my arms will appreciate the break." He smiled at the girl who gave a small, genuine little smirk back at him before she went off through the crowd. Leaving him to noodle his way past the various party goes and drugged up teenagers who didn't even notice that a large chunk of them could have been really badly injured just a moment ago. Still, as he finally got to the bar and sat down, this time next to Neo and between her and Roman Jaune had to admit that the night had been pretty fun in the end.

Neo did a nice little spin around in her seat with a smile on her face, the little teasing evening hadn't gone as planned sure, but it was still fun as hell for her to just mess around with Bifrost out there. A toy that actually didn't break very easily was something she appreciated. Also, the fact that he had done that little save, even if she could have easily gotten out of the way herself was appreciated at least. Oh, she hoped that they could stick around some more if she could only play with Bifrost some later with a few better thought out plans as opposed to what she was doing tonight. As she ordered another Swirl from the bartender she caught Roman's eye with her own. The man then flew into a few quick signs, their own version of "thieve's cant" asking clearly if the kid seemed to know more than a Beacon hopeful and she just shook her head.

_"No, he didn't seem all that skilled. He seemed like he was somewhat decent at dancing and could carry a tune at the very least, no combat skills though." Neo got the man's caution, of course. Bifrost had asked about having a magical ability or something right? That was probably just him using his semblance for the first time, those things can seem pretty magical at times after all. Nothing too strange._

"Ah, man that was some interesting fun there. You know how to tease a guy Neo...Anyways can we get back to what we were talking about before I left with her?" Shit, did the blond idiot really have to bring that up again? He might have walked away from a free man if he just waited a little longer.

"How, I want to know about any sembalences that seem magical. That lets you...Preform feats that no one of your strength levels should be able to? That could like, conjure new materials out of nowhere?" Ok, he was getting really close to the kind of shit Cinder showed off to look intimidating but there was something...Off about the way he spoke something not quite adding up. Seeing Roman standing up letting lose a bit of killing intent directed at the boy, Neo quickly jumped from her seat to be in between them as she shook her head. Why did she jump in to save the kid? She didn't know but he had saved her a moment earlier so she owed that to him at least.

_"Roman, I don't think he knows about the bitch that is our boss. If he did why would he come to us for this forgery shit?" Neo looked sternly at her older brother figure, yeah there was something not quite adding up about Jaune but, well he was her favorite little toy ever so far and he was honestly harmless to them at the moment. Letting loose a sigh, Roman nodded to his compatriot and started to tap his cane against the floor a couple times, the signal for a hasty exit._

"Right, right. Well , I want to tell you this. I can investigate this matter for you, I was probably going to look into something similar anyways. If this is just a passing curiosity and wonder about the world than great for you! I implore you to study more! But if I get a whiff that you are trying to con me with this, trying to backstab me or anything during our interactions?" Roman stepped forward, grabbing Jauen by the chin and making him look into Roman's intense eyes.

"I have ended more than one of my rivals with an anonymous police tip, I could send you to jail without a second thought with no danger to myself and I got people to take care of you once we are that far." And with that Neo used her semblance to make the two of them crack a bit before they seemingly shattered into a thousand pieces to hide their getaway.


End file.
